War on Drugs

Steven Greenhut | 12.26.2025 7:30 AM

The United States government first launched a War on Drugs on June 17, 1971, when President Richard Nixon declared: "America's public enemy number one…is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new all-out offensive…This will be a worldwide offensive dealing with the problems of sources of supply."

The war has ebbed and flowed over the past 54 years, but the results are clear. Drugs won. But instead of learning the requisite lessons, the Trump administration is ramping up anti-drug-war rhetoric to lunatic levels. The president recently issued an executive order designating fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction." He's empowered the military to destroy Venezuelan boats that likely aren't carrying that synthetic opioid or even headed to the United States.

The administration's rhetoric is mind-numbingly off the rails. For instance, Attorney General Pam Bondi in April claimed during congressional testimony that Donald Trump's policies have saved the lives of 258-million people. It's highly unlikely that 75% of America's population would have died from drug overdoses, just as it's highly unlikely that, 

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